I didn’t know anything about Belgium before coming here nearly three weeks ago. I thought you might not either. This is an interview with our couchsurfing hosts, Gudrun and Kelly. Gudrun is a native of Belgium and she’s a chef and connoisseur of Belgium culinary delights. Kelly, her fiancé, is an American living and studying engineering in Belgium. 

How long have you lived in Belgium?  

K: 5 years

G: 29 years, minus the one and one-half years that I spent living in New Zealand and traveling.

What is your favorite film or novel about Belgium?  

K: In Brugge - Maybe that is cliché, but it expresses the schizophrenic feelings that I have for that city.  It is beautiful and romantic, but over-touristy and annoying.  It is simultaneously "a fucking fairytale" and "hell" for me.  HHHaha.

G: Daems, it explains the history in Belgium

What is your favorite tourist spot in Belgium? Least favorite? Why?  

K: My favorite tourist spot in Belgium is De Haan, which is a small seaside village.  It is so quaint and picturesque.  You can get the best ice cream and pancakes there. It isn't too crowded, and the atmosphere is friendly.

I also love Spa, Antwerp, and Leuven.

My least favorite (staying with the beach theme) is Oostende... it is crowded and full of tourists.  It is worth a day trip for the fish market, but I don't bother to stay there.

G: My favorite tourist spots are Central Station and the cathedral. In Antwerp, there are a variety of things to do and places to visit. Because it is really beautiful, I feel at home there. (Oh, and it is my hometown.)

I really can’t think of a least favorite tourist spot. J

 What is the most important thing to know when one visits Belgium? 

K: You can't get free water in restaurants and there aren't many public drinking fountains.  So bring your water.  Also, make sure you have some change on hand to "get rid" of your water... because the toilets cost about 50 cents. Also, along the line of cash, most shops and smaller restaurants don't accept credit cards and you can only find ATMs at banks, so you should always carry some cash.

G: This is “Beer’n Chocolate-Country!” Diamonds are famous in Antwerp. Antwerp also has really good fashion-designers (Dries van Noten, Tom Notte, Bart Vandenbosch, Walter van Beirendonck etc.) as well as painters ( Rubens, Van Eyck). I know this is more than one thing, but there are so many things to offer when someone visits Belgium.

Where have you traveled? 

K: Oh my.... in Belgium or the world?

Belgium: Brussels, Leuven, Gent, Antwerp, every single city along the coast (mainly De Panne, Oostende, Bredene, De Haan, and Knokke - I like to ride my bike from France to Holland along the coast), Charleoi, Spa, Sint-Truiden, Tienen... and those are just the big cities.

In the world, I'll just give countries:

Canada, China, England, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark... I think that's all (for now).  Haha.

G: Do I have to write this all down? Ok, let me think...  Poland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India, Italy, Portugal, Saint Martin, Sweden, Thailand, Austria, France, Switzerland,  Netherlands, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Turkey, United States, Singapore, Dubai, the Caribbean.

 Why is it important to travel? 

K: To make the world a smaller place and to see things from another perspective.  The more you understand how other cultures think, the more able you are able to understand the world from their point of view. 

G: To meet new people, for the culture, history, local way of living, and to have experiences. I love learning languages and trying out new things. (When I was in New Zealand, I tried out things for fun, for the experience, ie. skydiving, eating local food, getting involved in their culture, getting a job, etc...)

Tell us how you got involved with couchsurfing.com. 

K: My little sister got involved, and traveled around Europe and had a great time collecting new friends.  I like the concept and the ideology of being a host to travelers from around the world, learning from them and teaching what I know.... I have always wanted to have an open door policy for friends, and CS helps me to open that idea to new friends as well as old.  Building a network of trust and understanding around the world is also a pretty neat side effect.

What is the most humorous or interesting thing that has happened either while you were couchsurfing or while you were hosting couchsurfers? 

K: This is a long story. So, I was in Valladolid, Spain last year for work, and my sister and Gudrun were supposed to visit me for the weekend.  I bought 3 non-refundable train tickets to go to Salamanca, a beautiful neighboring city.  Well, Belgian dairy farmers thought that that Friday was a good time to strike about low milk prices, and drove their tractors on the highway to a demonstration in Brussels. Gudrun and my sister ended up behind those tractors and missed their flight. 

Here I was, alone and lonely, and with two extra train tickets to Salamanca.  So, I got on couchsurfing and sent out three invitations (out of hundreds of CSers in this town).  Two of them wrote back that they were busy, but the third message, to two girls, was accepted.  So, I went to Salamanca with Lucie and Pascaline, two French girls living in Spain. (It turns out that they were lesbians too, but I didn't know that when I invited them... funny).

We had a great time in Salamanca…Anyway, our train tickets were with assigned seating, and on the way back, one of the three tickets was assigned to a different train car.  I bought a horrible women's fashion magazine to read on the train (it was the only thing I could find in English) and I sat in my seat.  I sat next to a guy who noticed my English magazine, and asked where I was from.  I said "Belgium" as I am accustomed to doing since the days of Bush (when being American got me dirty stares). The guy told me that he was from the United States, but he was working in Italy and was having a weekend away in Spain.

I admitted finally that I was also an American transplant to Europe, and we compared stories of living away from home.  "And by the way, have you ever heard of Couchsurfing?" he said.  "DO I EVER!" was my reply.  We traded CS stories, and had great time realizing that we were on the same page. 

He invited me to have a drink with him and his host when we got back to Valladolid.  Who do we find when we get to the bar?  Alberto, one of the three CS members that I invited to Salamanca.  Alberto and I are now very close friends, and we get together every time I come to Valladolid (which is often) and we compare hiking stories and complain about government and the overreaching control of religion. 

He is probably one of my closest CS friends, and we wouldn't have met if Belgian dairy farmers were happy about milk prices.

 Where is the next place you want to visit? 

K: Oh my, I can't make up my mind, but high on my list are:

Italy, Greece, Croatia, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania, Russia, and Peru..... We'll see where the winds blow us first.

 G: Don`t know yet...South Africa, perhaps? I would love to go back to India though.